Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays urged a Florida federal court Friday to deny concessionaire Centerplate's bid to escape the ball club's breach of contract suit over an expiring 20-year pact, saying it has provided no basis and relies on “unfounded accusations.”

Major League Baseball players Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard are pushing for an answer as to whether Al Jazeera will be forced to hand over information gathered by an undercover investigator for a controversial 2015 documentary that accused them of using performance enhancing drugs, and if it is the subject of their defamation lawsuit.

In Law360’s latest roundup of new actions at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, country singer Lee Greenwood appeals after being refused a registration on the name of his most famous hit, Major League Baseball welcomes spring training by aiming to block a "Spring Training" mark, and Allstate takes its "Drivewise" battle with Kia to the board.

Topgolf International Inc., which operates more than two dozen combined driving ranges and restaurants, asked the Fifth Circuit to affirm a district court's ruling in an antitrust suit alleging it acquired a software provider used by a competitor and may not renew the services contract when it expires, telling the court the claims cannot be brought because they are speculative.

A Missouri federal judge has refused to let a group of personal seat license holders depose Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke in their suit over the NFL team's move to Los Angeles after finding they haven't shown a need for his testimony.

As taxpayers and employers alike grapple with the sweeping changes to federal tax law signed late last year, athletes, coaches and teams aren't immune from the money-saving — and cash-costing — effects of the reform.

The last week has seen Chubb bring an action against U.S. forestry giant Weyerhaeuser, Russia's Kapital Insurance lodge a claim against more than a dozen insurers and reinsurers, and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme sue Heritage Corporate Trustees for breach of fiduciary duty. Here, Law360 looks at those and other new claims in the U.K.

The NCAA urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to reject a $42 million fee award to attorneys for student-athletes who successfully fought rules barring them from exploiting their publicity rights, arguing the students didn’t win their whole case and the lower court erroneously used an “all-or-nothing, winner-takes-all, 'Game of Thrones' approach” to fees.

A New York federal judge found Thursday that a slew of news organizations, including Yahoo, Time, The Boston Globe and Gannett, infringed a photographer’s copyrighted picture of NFL quarterback Tom Brady when they embedded tweets containing the image within articles on their websites. (Correction: An earlier story incorrectly described the underlying actions that constituted infringement. The error has been corrected.)

John Cena has told a Michigan federal judge that Ford Motor Co. “can’t see him” in federal court on claims he reneged on a promise not to resell a custom-made GT sports car, saying his contract contained no such agreement.

A former Division II college baseball player and his parents launched a lawsuit against his school and the National Collegiate Athletic Association in Pennsylvania federal court Wednesday, accusing them of not doing enough to protect him from a foul ball that allegedly struck him and caused severe neurological damage.

A New York federal judge on Thursday declined to dismiss an indictment alleging that an Adidas executive, a consultant and a former NBA agent conspired to bribe college basketball players with six-figure payments in exchange for attending Adidas-sponsored schools and work with specific agents.

Hanesbrands Inc. filed trademark infringement claims against a New York-based apparel brand in federal court Wednesday, accusing it of ripping off its cursive-print Champion logos with a “parasitic business model" that uses words like "gangster" and "Chapo."

A joint committee in the Massachusetts Legislature on Wednesday began considering a bill that would make daily fantasy sports permanently legal and taxed in the state, but the legislation and lawmakers are also gearing up for what happens next if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a nationwide prohibition on placing bets during this session.

A battle of legendary New York broadcasters broke out Thursday when sportscaster Warner Wolf accused longtime radio personality Don Imus of illegally firing him from the “Imus in the Morning” radio show because he was too old.

In this monthly series, legal recruiting experts Amanda Brady and Amy Mallow of Major Lindsey & Africa interview law firm management from Am Law 200 firms about how they are navigating an increasingly competitive business environment. The second conversation is with Allison Friend, chief human resources officer for Hogan Lovells LLP.

U.S. Bank on Thursday agreed to pay $613 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and bank regulators over alleged failings of its anti-money laundering programs, including an effort to hide those deficiencies from its regulator and processing transactions for disgraced payday lending mogul and race car driver Scott Tucker.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge gave motorsports company Velocity Holding Co. Inc. the green light Wednesday to poll creditors on its Chapter 11 plan to rework more than $400 million in debt after hearing that concerns from unsecured creditors over how liability releases were described had been resolved.

A Manhattan federal judge expressed sympathy Wednesday with the medical marijuana movement's frustration over the failure of leaders in Washington, D.C., to acknowledge the plant's benefits, but he warned he may not have jurisdiction over a former NFL star's suit demanding decriminalization.

Expert Analysis

Late last year, the Sedona Conference released the third edition of its principles addressing electronic document production, updated to account for innovations like Snapchat and Twitter. It may be necessary for these principles to be updated more often in order to keep pace with technology, says Charles McGee III of Murphy & McGonigle LLP.

Last week, the District of Delaware raised eyebrows by ruling that documents provided to a litigation funder and its counsel in connection with their due diligence are categorically not attorney work product. Acceleration Bay v. Activision Blizzard seems to be a case of bad facts making bad law, says David Gallagher, investment manager and legal counsel for Bentham IMF.

Artificial intelligence tools can empower attorneys to work more efficiently, deepen and broaden their areas of expertise, and provide increased value to clients, which in turn can improve legal transparency, dispute resolution and access to justice. But there are some common pitfalls already apparent in the legal industry, say Ben Allgrove and Yoon Chae of Baker McKenzie.

In "Justice and Empathy: Toward a Constitutional Ideal," the late Yale Law School professor Robert Burt makes a compelling case for the undeniable role of the courts in protecting the vulnerable and oppressed​. But the question of how the judiciary might conform to Burt’s expectations raises practical problems​, says U.S. Circuit Judge Allyson Duncan of the Fourth Circuit. ​

On Friday, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport essentially reversed itself by stating that the International Olympic Committee had the right to keep cleared Russian athletes out of the Pyeongchang Olympics, it appeared that intimidation from the IOC had worked. This is especially true because the basis of the new CAS opinion is diametrically opposed to a 2011 opinion of the CAS, says Ronald Katz of GCA Law Partners LLP.

As litigation funding becomes more widespread, greater complexity and variability in funding deals are to be expected. All claimants should consider certain key questions on the economics of single-case funding when considering or comparing funding terms, says Julia Gewolb of Bentham IMF.

Given the operational and security risks involved, and the substantial digital asset values transacted, the rise of distributed ledger technology and smart contracts will create new opportunities and responsibilities for transactional lawyers, say attorneys with Potter Anderson Corroon LLP.

The International Olympic Committee’s decision to continue to ban Russian athletes from the Pyeongchang Olympics rejects the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport — a tribunal created by none other than the International Olympic Committee. But there is absolutely no reason to believe that the CAS decisions were tainted, says Ronald Katz of GCA Law Partners LLP.

Law firms claim they create client teams to improve service. Clients aren’t fooled, describing these initiatives as “thinly veiled sales campaigns.” Until firms and client teams begin to apply a number of principles consistently, they will continue to fail and further erode clients’ trust, says legal industry coach Mike O’Horo.

The Olympics have the unique ability to catapult a relatively unknown name into global celebrity. Athletes suddenly have a "brand" to sell — and to protect with trademarks, says Michael Rueda of Withers Bergman LLP.